
REV. JOHN C. LORD'S DISCOURSE 



DEATH 



HOI. SAMUEL WILKESON. 




^si^^^g^^^g^^^g g^^e ^^gs 



"THE VALIANT MAN." 



A DISCOURSE 



ON THE 



DEATH 



OF THE 



HON. SAMUEL WILKESON 




OF BUFFALO. 



BY JOHN C. LORD, D.D. 

M 

Pastor of tlie First Old School Presbyterian Church of tlie City of Bufl'a 



BUFFALO: 
STEAM PRESS OF JEWETT, THOMAS & CO. 

Commercial Advertiser Buildings. 

1848. 



DISCOURSE. 



I Samuel, XXVI, 15: II Samuel, I, 27. 

ART NOT THOU A VALIANT MAN, AND WHO IS LIKE TO THEE IN ISRAEL? 
HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN, AND THE WEAPONS OF WAR PERISHED. 

1 

With the ancients, valor and virtue were synonknous 
terms. They knew no higher development of the moral 
nature of man than fortitude, they acknowledged no 
greater quality than courage. This conclusion is not so 
wide of the truth as it might appear to be upon a cursory 
examination, for moral courage properly directed, is at 
once the most striking characteristic of greatness, and the 
most exalted attribute of goodness or virtue. 

The gospel was to the Gentile world the revelation of a 
form of valor of which they knew nothing, of a kind of 
courage of which they had little or no idea, yet, no new 
term was necessary to express the fortitude with which 
Christianity exhorted its disciples to deny themselves 
ungodliness and worldly lusts, to crucify the flesh and its 
appetites, or the courage with which they were animated 
be the precepts of the Savior, to endure hardness as good 



soldiers of Jesus Christ, to speak with boldness before 
kings, to carry the news of salvation to the ends of the 
earth, with danger and death ever at their side ; to preach 
Christ and him crucified amid afflictions, persecutions and 
terrors, such as had been before unknown, and to endure 
the trial of cruel tortures invented now for the first time 
to terrify the soldiers of the cross in their onset upon the 
kingdom of darkness. Nor did the Gentiles need a new 
term to express the boldness with which the primitive 
christians were exhorted to defend the faith once delivered 
to the saints, to obey God rather than men, to fear no face 
of clay, no arm of flesh, and when the early martyrs 
refused to offer incense before the image of the emperor 
of Rome, when they declined to render to the imperial 
Caesars the homage which was due only to God, when the 
gray headed senator, the rough soldier, the tender and 
delicate female and the child of years, who had been 
instructed in the things of the Kingdom of heaven, 
endured scorn and scourging and " were stoned, were sawn 
asunder, were tempted, were slain by the sword," nay, 
were clad in the skins of beasts, worried and torn by dogs, 
and cast, mangled and bleeding, into the fires, for the testi- 
mony of Jesus and the word of God, they needed no 
other term than virtue or courage to express the idea 
suggested by a heroism of which they knew no precedent 
and had seen no example. 

The Romans had indeed known instances of patriotism. 
The groans of Regulus rolled upon spikes by the fierce 



Carthagenians because he refused to desert or betray his 
country, had penetrated the hearts of all men, and the 
youth of Rome were taught in childhood the words 
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." 

But to endure the worst evils for God and the truth, to 
suffer for conscience' sake, to receive the loss of all things 
that a world lying in wickedness might be enlightened, to 
know no difference between bond and free, Barbarian, 
Scythian, Greek or Jew, to die rather than endorse a false- 
hood by rendering a common act of homage to the majesty 
of Rome, was to both Greek and Roman an astonishment, 
a wonder, a sign to them indeed, that the promised Light 
who was to enlighten the Gentiles and break down the 
wall of partition, was now come and had set up his king- 
dom among men. It was but a higher form of courage, a 
nobler valor, a greater virtue, a more universal patriotism. 
They had seen the systems of polytheism meet and min- 
gle at Rome, they had gloried in the fact that all Gods 
were tolerated and all religions practiced in the Eternal 
City, where were gathered the captive Deities of the 
various forms of paganism throughout the world, now 
domiciled and naturalized in that vast capital which claimed 
to be mistress of the whole earth; but they had never 
before seen a religion whose doctrines were exclusive and 
supreme, whose followers had the courage to proclaim by 
the very altars of then false gods, "there is none other 
name under heaven, given among men whereby we must 
be saved," and who had the valor to die for their faith. 



6 

These were valiant men, such as had not been seen before, 
and this example so wrought upon the Gentiles that it 
became a proverb among the primitive christians "the 
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." No 
wonder then that the Apostle Peter exhorted the people 
of God to add to their faith, virtue, by which he intended 
valor, the true signification of tlie term in the original ; or 
we may understand him as saying, " make proof of your 
faith by your courage." 

The high and rare quality of valor so greatly esteemed 
among the ancients, was the image and shadow of that 
divine grace in the church, which enabled her to contend 
against all the powers of evil, and to triumph over a 
world in arms, against principalities and powers in high 
places, the rulers of the darkness of this world, who had 
enthroned themselves in all places of worship and secured 
the allegiance of all the nations of the earth. If the 
triumphs of Christianity are not now what they were in 
the first ages of the church — if, as all must admit, she fails 
to progress with the same power and rapidity, it is because 
she does not add to her faith valor — because there are so 
few valiant men " the arms of whose hands are made strong 
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." We have said 
that courage is rare in this world, as a natural quality, by 
which we do not mean that mere physical courage which 
leads its possessor under all the excitements of the battle 
field, to face the cannon's mouth, but the valor which 
enables a man to act independently, upon the basis of his 



own convictions and judgment, to express his opinions 
boldly, even when adverse to the common current of senti- 
ment, to act in view of obligation and duty, rather than 
expediency, to stand for what he deems to be true, if com- 
pelled to stand alone amid a storm of reproach and obloquy, 
to face like a valiant man an army of opponents, to expose 
tyranny and corruption though clad in regal or sacerdotal 
vestments, and defended by a host of venal parasites or 
vacillating time servers. We mean that valor which makes 
a man something beside a mere echo of the thoughts and 
sentiments of others, which constitutes a true nobleman of 
nature's election, a real king, or leader of men whose royalty 
is sufficiently manifest without the purple or the diadem, 
who answers to that description in the Old Testament so 
commonly applied to the truly great, whether kings or 
subjects, prophets or statesmen, priests or warriors, "He 
was a mighty man of valor." Thus Gideon threshing 
wheat under the oak of Ophrah is styled by the angel 
" The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valor." So 
David while a mere youth, feeding his father's flocks, is 
called a mighty, valiant man and a man of war and 
prudent in matters. Thus Abner is styled in the text, 
and Zadoc the Priest, in the book of Chronicles. We mean 
by courage, the substantial element of true greatness, 
ever rare, yet never more so than in this age of ours. 
How small the number of men, in this clay, who are any 
thing more than mere cyphers in a row, whose value and 
importance exist in, and are ascertained by, the prefixed 



8 

unit which is called public sentiment. How is individual 
responsibility merged in the action of the masses, and 
private opinion crushed beneath the weight of that 
blind Giant called the public voice, who staggers onward 
unguided and undirected, without aim or end, presenting 
the single energy of brute force and governing by the sim- 
ple element of pure despotism. 

Who now dares maintain an individual opinion? Who 
does not seek the shelter of some action of the masses, of 
some aggregation or combination for the defence of his 
position on moral or political questions ? What argument 
is so powerful for the maintainance of a sentiment, or the 
wisdom of a measure as that a majority are in favor of it, 
which is not even presumptive evidence of the truth of 
the one, or the expediency of the other. Who hopes for 
success without the prestige of a supposed numerical supe- 
riority? What argument so prominent in the great political 
canvass for the highest office in this Republic, what plea 
is so urged, what motive so counted on, what declaration 
so stereotyped in our public journals as that of the candi- 
date's prospect of success ? " The public voice is with us, we 
have a majority, our party were never so numerous, so 
united or so determined ! — Let the weak yield to the strong, 
let right give way to might !" Even in the church the grace 
of valor is exceedingly rare, nay, it has come to be dis- 
credited and called by harsh names. If a man stand for 
the faith he is styled a Polemic ; if he is clear and earnest 
in his opinions and their statement, he is a dogmatist ; 



9 

if he resists the insidious approaches of error and blows 
the trumpet of alarm when the enemy comes in like a 
flood, he is a man of war from his youth and to be 
shunned on' this account, by those who cry peace, peace, 
though the Master said " I came not to send peace on the 
earth but a sword." Charity is made the plea in the 
church for cowardice — a time-serving spirit that abandons 
principle for ease and quiet, and truth for popularity, is 
called humility and brotherly kindness. An infidel 
eclectism prevails, which finds something true and praise- 
worthy in every system, and so sacrifices the gospel upon 
the altar of that spirit of compromise, which led the 
Romans to unite with their own every other form of 
religion, and compound in one that mass of abominati* >ns 
upon which Christianity fell like a consuming fire. 
Against this philosophy the early christians arrayed them- 
selves in a position of uncompromising hostility ; unter- 
rified by the charge that they were turning the world 
upside clown, and creating tumult, confusion and persecu- 
tion, for they knew that truth was eternally hostile to 
error, that light and darkness could never mingle, that 
they could not serve two masters, and that the attempt 
to unite the altars of God and Mammon was ever a cow- 
ardly sacrifice of principle to expediency. The slanders 
of their opponents, the bitterness of the enmity which 
they awakened, never moved them from their purpose, for 
they knew the Master had said, " the servant is not above 



10 

his Lord ; if they have persecuted me they will persecute 
you," and "woe unto you when all men speak well of you." 

These remarks are appropriate as an introduction to a 
brief account of the distinguished man whose recent death 
we are called to notice and improve to-day, because of all 
the high qualities which gave him an extended influence 
and a national reputation, courage was the most marked 
and prominent. 

Judge Wilkeson was a valiant man, of whom we may 
say, as David of Abner, "few were like him in Israel." It 
was his fearlessness, his native energy, ever undaunted by 
difficulties, and unterrified by opposition, that gave promi- 
nence, if not development, to his great intellectual powers. 
To the want of this quality more than any other, may be 
attributed, the neglect often experienced by men of genius ; 
no less than the continued obscurity of multitudes whose 
gifts of intellect would have enabled them to have held 
Senates in wrapt attention, or to have successfully guided 
the vessel of State. The fact so often observed that a 
great crisis makes great men, that times of revolution, 
change and terror, when the sun in the political heavens is 
darkened, abound with the gifted and heroic, whose displays 
of intellect and power, are the admiration and the envy 
of succeeding and more quiet ages, proves the truth of 
this remark. Men are forced into action by the exigencies 
of troublous times ; the fearful are made courageous by 
the convulsions and dangers which they cannot escape, and 
Giants are seen warring with upheaved mountains, where 



11 

otherwise and under other circumstances, Pigmies alone 
are discovered hiding in the clefts of the rocks. It is in 
times of peace and security that the words of Gray's 
beautiful elegy in a country church-yard are verified : 

" Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire, 
Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, 
Or waked to ecstacy the living lyre. 

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife. 
Their sober wishes never learned to stray, 
Along the cool sequestered vale of life. 
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." 

It is no small proof of the extraordinary courage and 
energy of Samuel Wilkeson, that he should have not only 
distinguished himself and wielded so great an influence in 
times of quiet and prosperity, but that he should have 
attained his elevated position under the most adverse 
circumstances. Born in a new settlement of Pennsylva- 
nia, when the country w T as convulsed with the struggle 
for independence, during the flight of his family from 
the seat of war, and while his parents were exiles in the 
wilderness, no school opened its doors for his reception in 
his childhood. He had but two books to engage his 
penetrating intellect — the book of nature, the mountains, 
rivers and forests of the rugged place of his nurture, the 
glorious heavens above, spreading the same magnificent 
arch over the people of every land, in every place, whether 
city or desert, forest or field ; and the Book of Revela- 
tion, without which no Scottish Presbyterian, (for he was 
of this noble descent,) ever crossed the ocean or settled 



12 

the wilderness. The Covenanter twice exiled — first to 
Ireland and then to the new world — no more hunted 
by the bloody instruments of tyranny, no more compelled 
to worship God in the dens and caves of the earth, or 
upon the Hill Side with armed sentinels stationed around 
the congregation to give notice of the approach of the 
soldiers of the persecuting and faithless Stuarts, whose 
military executions were more summary than those of the 
pagan Caesars', — was yet in the wilderness of western 
Pennsylvania without a house of worship. But what was 
this to the men of that pure and primitive faith, who had 
learned that the living God dwells not in temples made 
with hands ? What was it to them if they worshipped 
under the arches of the ancient forests, with the free light 
of Heaven shininsr in the intervals of the woods with an 
effect that no painting or architecture can imitate ? 
What cared these valiant men for visible altars, who 
offered spiritual sacrifices upon altars erected in their 
hearts ? What to them was the glitter and show of exter- 
nals, who abhorred the superstitions of that hollow but gor- 
geous worship, whose officials had by their cruelty made 
both Popery and Prelacy an abomination, and a hissing to 
the Scottish and Irish Presbyterians ? How often has our 
venerable friend and brother described the places where he 
first heard the word of God from the early missionaries in 
the wilderness, — 'an opening in the forest, with a stump 
for a pulpit and rude logs arranged for seats under the 
open canopy of heaven.' It was thus the Presbyterians 



who settled that part of Pennsylvania were accustomed to 
assemble on the Sabbath, thinking of the hill-sides of 
Scotland, where amid a scenery, almost as wild as that of an 
American wilderness, they had formerly convened with 
arms in their hands to protect their women and children 
from violence, thankful now that their Sabbath offering was 
no more disturbed with the rattle of musketry and with 
the cries of wounded and dying brethren. 

Without the means of education, destined apparently to 
the hard and laborious life of a farmer in the new settle- 
ments, without any advantages of fortune or patronage, 
young Wilkbson seemed likely to live and die in that 
comparative obscurity to which all things appeared to tend 
in his early history. But he was a valiant man and fought 
his way upward against difficulties which to the vast 
majority of men would have appeared insurmountable. 
Without the indomitable courage, which we esteem his 
great and peculiar characteristic, his powers would have 
remained undeveloped, his strength unknown, his influence 
unfelt. Who could have imagined that the youthful Penn- 
sylvanian with hardly the rudiments of an English educa- 
tion, of uncultivated manners, and in the coarse clothing 
of a borderer upon civilization, going forth to seek his for- 
tune in the world with his strong features, rough speech, 
and woodman's habits, would come to deliver the decisions 
of the law as Judge, and fill with distinguished ability a 
place in the Senate of the greatest state of the confederacy? 
Who would have supposed that his genius, his knowledge 



14 

and sound judgment would attract the attention and secure 
the admiration of the most distinguished men in the 
United States, and that in connexion with the cause of 
Colonization and at the head of a Society which has its 
auxiliaries throughout the Union, he would become known 
and appreciated over our vast country as the leader of a 
national enterprise, who had in his natural powers, in his 
energy and courage, in his extensive and general informa- 
tion, few equals and no superiors? Who could have 
dreamed that this wild and uncultivated boy would take a 
place like this and grow up to an intellectual stature which 
should give him a position among the small number of 
truly great men, and an influence beyond the city of his 
residence or the country of his birth ; for the name of Sam- 
uel Wilkeson is inseparably connected with the cause of 
African Colonization, and is numbered with the deliverers 
of a continent, to be remembered and honored by the world, 
in the day when "Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands 
unto God." Across the Atlantic there is a durable monu- 
ment of his fame in the free State of Liberia, whose 
inscription shall yet be read by the untold millions of that 
vast continent, as through the wide and effectual door which 
he aided to open, the light of civilization and Christianity 
shall dawn upon the children of Ham. Then it shall be 
seen, if it be not already discernable, through the fogs of 
prejudice, and the heats of fanaticism, that the enterprise of 
African Colonization is the only wise, safe and efficient 
measure of all the devices which look to the welfare 



15 

of the black man, the only one that has really tended 
to the elevation of this degraded and down-trodden 
race, whether enslaved abroad, or roaming over the sands of 
their native and burning climate. What is now apparent 
to impartial and careful observers, will hereafter be seen 
and acknowledged by all, that the African can only be 
elevated on his own continent, away from the shadow of 
the white race, free to develope his powers and prove his 
natural equality with his brethren, and prepared by 
his position to win his barbarous and pagan kindred to the 
truth, able at last to startle with his cannon the Harpies 
that haunt the coast of Africa for slaves, and make his 
flag respected in every sea, and by all the nations of the 
earth. 

How insignificant and trifling appear the civil and 
political honors of our departed friend, compared with his 
connexion with a great moral enterprize, which looks to 
the redemption of a continent; which, passing out of the 
circle of social and political relationship, beyond the boun- 
daries of country, color and climate, embraces the world in 
its efforts and seeks the recovery of the race. As the 
promise of the Father to the Son is accomplished, as the 
King of men is set on the holy hill of Zion, as the Heathen 
become his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
his possession, the renown of monarchs, heroes and war- 
riors must decline, the limited field of their action and glory 
will be forgotten. The reputation that is local, the fame 
that is merely national, must diminish as the common 



16 

brotherhood of men is made apparent by the progress of 
the kingdom of Christ, but who can tell with what admi- 
ration and reverence the recovered world will embalm the 
names of those who, in the day of apathy and apostacy, of 
selfishness and fanaticism, of discord, jealousy and strife 
among the nations, led the forlorn hope of a ruined race 
and fought against the most fearful odds — who counted 
him faithful who had promised, and valiantly led the des- 
pised band who contended for the Kingship of the Son of 
God, assailed the dominion of Satan, and planted the 
foundations upon which the world's recovery is heralded, 
embracing in their sympathies and efforts not a city, 
a nation or an empire, but a world. With the opening of 
doors for Africa, with the efforts to redeem the children of 
Canaan from the curse, to chase away the night of centu- 
ries resting as a dark cloud upon that third part of the 
earth, with the glory, honor and immortality which belong 
to the first efforts of mighty valiant men to plant the gos- 
pel in the haunts of the slave-trader, amid two hundred 
millions of barbarians, the name of Samuel Wilkeson is 
inseperably connected, and though his body rests in the 
mountains of Tennessee, his epitaph may yet be written by 
an African at the Equator. The memory of the lad who 
first hsard the gospel in the forests that skirt the Allegha- 
nies, may be gratefully cherished and his influence felt by 
coming generations on the banks of the Niger and at the 
sources of the Nile. What a glorious thought is this, that, 
a man in the short period of an ordinary life may connect 



17 

himself with the highest interests of the universe, may 
write his name in imperishable characters upon the enter- 
prises which are to accomplish the regeneration of 
our race, and may perpetuate his influence to the end of 
time, by valiant effort in behalf of Him who is destined to 
put all things under his feet, to open the doors of the 
prison house, and to set the captives free — to break every 
yoke of bondage, and chase away every remnant of 
darkness. 

The natural impulse in view of the death of a great and 
good man — the first burst of lamentation, is like that of 
David over Jonathan — " How are the mighty fallen and 
the weapons of war perished." We are ready to exclaim, 
'the bow of strength is broken — the shield is hung up in the 
hall — the sword is rusting in the scabbard — the strong man 
has bowed himself — the battle has ceased at the gate — the 
valiant has fallen in the conflict with death — the strong rods 
are broken and withered — the silver cord is loosed, the 
golden bowl is broken ! They are gone who were swifter 
than eagles and stronger than lions — the beauty of Israel is 
slain upon the high places — how are the mighty fallen in 
the midst of the battle ! ' Our first thought is to lift up 
the prayer, "help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the 
faithful fail from among the children of men." But anon we 
hear a voice from heaven saying "write, blessed are the 
dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works 
do follow them." 



18 

Judge Wilkeson became a resident of this city before 
the close of the war of 1812, when it was but an inconsid- 
erable frontier village, and was engaged in the partial 
defence of Buffalo which was attempted at the time the 
town was invaded, and destroyed by the British. His 
early identification with the interests of this city is well 
known, and it will probably be conceded that to no man, 
living or dead, is Buffalo so much indebted for its rapid 
growth and present position as the Queen City of the great 
inland seas of the North. Indeed it may be questioned 
whether this city would have been anything more than a 
mere dependancy upon a neighboring village, had the provi- 
d3nce of God directed the footsteps of Judge Wilkeson 
to another quarter. 

Although a deep interest was felt by all the citizens 
hare to S3cure the advantages of the natural position of 
Buffalo — though a law was obtained in 1818 authorizing a 
survey of a harbor, and a loan in 1819 of $12,000 to build 
it, yet without the courage and energy of Samuel Wilke- 
son, without his peculiar qualifications, without his devoted 
parsonal superintendence of the work which made Buffalo 
the terminus of the Erie canal, the project, to human view, 
must have been abandoned. No disparagement is intended 
of the efforts and sacrifices made by others. Among the 
dead are Charles Townsend and Oliver Forward, who 
signed with him that bond which pledged their private for- 
tunes to the repayment of the hazardous loan which laid 
the corner stone of this growing city ; among the living 



19 

there are many who, to the extent of their means and 
influence, aided in this great work. But where was the 
man who could make a harbor with twelve thousand dollars? 
where the valiant man that would baffle the winds and shut 
up the waves within the necessary bounds, and stay the 
devastating sweep of the fearful storms which annually 
career over the lakes with this insignificant sum — a work 
which subsequently cost the general government two 
hundred thousand dollars? Who else had the physical 
courage to labor with his men shoulder-deep in the water 
from sunrise to sunset ? Who here had the same control 
over others, or could induce a gang of laborers to endure the 
exhausting toils of an undertaking the recorded perils of 
which are really startling?* Without a leader possessing 



* From a brief history of the early incidents connected with the 
Buffalo Harbor, which appeared a few years since in the Commercial 
Advertiser of this city, from the pen of Judge Wilkeson, we make 
the following extracts: 

" But a harbor we were resolved to have. Application was accord- 
ingly made to the Legislature for a survey of the creek, and an act 
was passed on the 10th of April, 1818, authorising the survey, and 
directing the Supervisors of the county of Niagara to pay three dollars 
a day to the surveyor, and to assess the amount upon the county. 
The survey was made by the present Hon. William Peacock, during 
the summer of that year, gratuitously. Then came the important 
question, where to get the money to build this harbor ? At that day 
no one thought of looking to Congress for appropriations, and there 
was no encouragement to apply to the Legislature of the State. The 
citizens could not raise the means, however willing they might have 
been. A public meeting was called, and an agent (the Hon. Chas. 
Townsend) was apj^ointed to proceed to Albany and obtain a loan. 
•Jonas Harrison, Ebenezer Walden, H. B. Potter, J. G. Camp, 0. 



20 

the combined physical and mental energy of our departed 
friend, without a valiant man whose like could not be 
found in our Israel to devote his whole powers of body and 



Forward, A. H. Tracy, E. Johnson, E. F. Norton and Charles Town- 
send were the applicants. Judge Townsend, after a protracted effort, 
succeeded, and an act was passed April 17th, 1819, authorizing a loan 
to the above persons and their associates of f 1 2,000, for twelve years, 
to be secured un bond and mortgage, and applied to the construction 
of a harbor, which the state had reserved the right to take when 
completed, and to cancel the securities. The year 1819 was one of 
general financial embarrasment, and no where was the pressure or 
want of money more sensibly felt than in the lake country. It had no 
market, and its produce was of little value. Some of the associates 
became embarrassed and others discouraged. The summer passed 
away, and finally all refused to execute the required securities except 
Judo-e Townsend and Judu;e Forward. Thus matters stood in 
December, 1819. Unless the condition of the loan should be com- 
plied with, the appropriation would be lost, and another might not 
easily be obtained ; for the project of a harbor at Black Rock and the 
termination of the canal at that place was advocated by influential 
men, and the practibility of making a harbor at the mouth of Buffalo 
creek, was seriously questioned. At this crisis, Judge Wilkeson, who 
had declined being on the original company, came forward, and with 
Messrs. Townsend and Forward agreed to make the necessary secu- 
rity. This was perfected during the winter of 1820." 

Speaking of the failure of the superintendent first appointed, who 
was removed : — 

" No one could be found experienced in managing men, who would 
undertake the superintendence. Mr. Townsend Avas an invalid and 
consequently unable to perform the duty. Mr. Forward was wanting 
in the practical experience that was necessary. Mr. Wilkeson had 
never seen a harbor and was engaged in business that required his 
unremitted attention. But rather than the effort should be abandoned 
he finally consented to undertake the superintendence and proceeded 
immediately to mark out a spot for the erection of a shanty on the 
beach between the creek and the lake — hired a few laborers, — gave 



21 

soul to the enterprise, it must have failed. If there be a 
citizen among that early band of enterprising men who laid 
the foundations of Buffalo, who was pre-eminent among oth- 



the necessary orders for lumber, cooking utensils and provisions. The 
boarding house and sleeping room were completed that same day. 

" Neither clerk or other assistant, not even a carpenter to lay out the 
work, was employed for the first two months to aid the superintendent; 
who beside directing all the labor, making contracts, receiving mate- 
rials, &c, labored in the water with the men, as much exposed as 
themselves, and conformed to the rules proscribed to them of com- 
mencing work at daylight, and continuing until dark, allowing half an 
hour for breakfast, and an hour for dinner. Beside the labors of the 
day, he was often detained until late at night waiting the arrival of 
boats, to measure their loads of stone, and to see them delivered in 
the pier, as without this vigilance some of the boatmen would unload 
their stone into the lake which was easier than to deposite it in the 
pier." 

After recording the perils of the work, its partial destruction at 
various times and the constancy and courage with which their repeated 
disasters were at last overcome, he says — 

" Thus was completed the first work of the kind ever constructed 
on the lakes. It had occupied two hundred and twenty-one working 
days in building, (the laborers always resting on the Sabbath) and 
extended into the lake about eighty rods to twelve feet water. It 
was begun, carried on and completed principally by three private 
individuals, some of whom mortgaged the whole of their real estate 
to raise the means for making an improvement in which they had but 
a common interest. And now, although but twenty years have 
elapsed, these sacrifices and efforts, and even the fact that such a work 
ever existed, are unknown to most of the citizens of Buffalo, who have 
only seen the magnificent stone pier erected at a cost of over $200,- 
000. But should the names of those who projected and constructed 
the first pier be remembered, for a few years, yet the subordinate actors 
by whose faithful labors the drudgery of this work was accomplished 
must remain unknown even to those who enjoy the immediate fruits 
of their labor in wealth and luxury." 



22 

ers in his efforts, who deserves above all to be remembered 
and to have his name indissolnbly connected with the 
history of the city of his adoption by a record of his life 
or by monumental honors, that citizen is the one whose 
decease we this day lament. Who has forgotten the con- 
flict he sustained against one of the strongest men in the 
State in behalf of Buffalo? Who has not heard of the 
war between rival towns, a war of conflicting interests, in 
which Judge ' Wilkeson as a mighty man of valor was 
victor against principalities and powers. But the detail of 
these things or the particulars of the political life of Judge 
Wilkeson will not be expected upon this occasion. It 
will be enough to say that between the years 1820 and 
1830 he was appointed first Judge of this county, was 
elected a member of the Assembly, and at the expiration 
of his term was sent from the eighth District to the Sen- 
ate of this State. He was one of the first citizens chosen 
to fill the office of Mayor after the incorporation of this 
city, and performed its duties with his characteristic intre- 
pidity and zeal, infusing his energy into the administration 
of its affairs, and making its police, for the time, a terror to 
evil doers. It is not too much to say that he filled all 
these stations with distinguished ability and with contin- 
ually increasing reputation to himself and advantage to his 
constituents. Soon after the close of his political career he 
became connected with the American Colonization Society 
and acted for several years as an agent and manager of the 
affairs of this benevolent institution without compensation. 



23 

His papers show the extensive knowledge he had acquired 
of the geography of Africa, of the moral and physical con- 
dition of its population and the profound interest he felt in 
the elevation of its degraded and barbarous tribes, an 
interest that was not diminished by his retirement from his 
official connexion with the cause, as years and infirmities 
increased, but that continued to the end of his life. 

The person of Judge Wilkeson was tall and comman- 
ding, tlie expression of his countenance somewhat stern 
and severe, but full of intellect and significant of his 
wonderful power and energy of character. While no man 
was more attached to his friends, it was perhaps a fault 
of our departed brother that he never sought to conciliate 
his enemies. Fearless of the opposition and enmity which 
men of his position and character always excite, to a 
greater or less extent, he was perhaps not sufficiently 
anxious to explain his motives, or to go into a justification 
of any plan of action adopted by him which aroused 
opposition. Satisfied himself of the wisdom and rectitude 
of his course, he was habitually careless of the opinions 
of adversaries and went boldly to his object, not only 
without equivocation or concealment, but without explan- 
ation. To this inflexibility of character may be traced the 
origin of many controversies, and the continued bitterness 
of some enmities which might otherwise have been preven- 
ted or healed, and though it was not mingled with any 
thing vindictive, yet it was undoubtedly a defect, which 
perhaps no one would be more ready to recognize and 



24 

acknowledge than himself. He was eminently fearless in 
the expression of his opinions, and never shrunk from 
the exposure of any corruption in high or low places, 
whatever danger might be incurred or whatever hostilities 
aroused ; he was in this respect a valiant man, and few 
like him are to be found in our Israel. 

He was distinguished for the influence he exerted over 
other minds. He was a natural leader of men, and would 
have filled with credit and honor the most exalted stations 
of Government and authority. He had an extraordinary 
faculty of impressing his opinions upon others, and leading 
them to conclusions which seemed their own but were 
really his. There was a vigor of thought and action about 
Judge Wilkeson that naturally subjected to his influence 
those who came within his sphere ; like the strong current 
of a rapid river, drawing within its control, carrying with 
its flow and impelling with its motion, the objects that 
would otherwise have remained inert and stationary. He 
communicated his energy to other men, and gave impulse 
and movement to other minds by the vigor of his 
own. In former ages and under other circumstances he 
might have led armies to victory, or headed a revolution 
against tyranny, or founded a dynasty, for he had all the 
essential elements of the old hero race who were made 
rulers and kings because they were " mighty men of valor," 
— who were elevated by common consent, as the ancient 
Goths bore their elective monarchs aloft on their shields, 
an acknowledgement and sign of a superiority, not of 



25 

accident, but of intellect and courage. Judge Wilkeson 
was entirely free from that common error of little minds, 
of attempting to maintain an apparent consistency of 
opinion at the expense either of veracity or integrity. 
Notwithstanding his inflexibility of purpose and iron will, 
he was ready to be corrected and open to conviction. 
Any view that he had taken, any course that he had 
adopted, which afterwards appeared erroneous he readily 
and openly abandoned. As an illustration of this trait 
the following fact has been furnished by one who knew 
him intimately. A few months after he had made a pub- 
he profession of religion, Judge Wilkeson was appointed 
upon a committee of conference to promote a certain 
measure of a moral and religious character. He made 
some suggestion in regard to the matter, or advised some 
plan which was thought by a much younger member of 
the Committee to be imbued with the spirit of worldly, 
rather than divine wisdom, which he frankly stated. The 
Judge immediately replied, " those who have practised 
upon the suggestions of expediency until they are old, are 
likely to be misled by them, and you, my young friend 
cannot understand how much a man, long trained in the 
maxims of the world, has to contend with," — a noble 
reply to a just reproof. To that pretended consistency 
which implies either an incapability of error or of pro- 
gress, he made no pretension, and those who do, seem to 
forget that the assumption clothes him who makes it with 
the attributes of God in the one case, by supposing him 



26 

infallible, or makes him in the other a fool, by denying 
him the power or the disposition to correct his errors, or 
increase his knowledge. It is not consistency, but cow- 
ardice that leads a class of men to cleave to their ancient 
errors and adhere to their mistaken opinions. The valiant 
man can no more be bound by them, than could Samson 
by the cords of the Philistines. He goes where truth 
leads, if he goes alone, unmoved by the snarling of that 
envious crew, who invariably dog the heels of all who rise 
above their own inferior and contemptible standard. That 
Judge Wilkeson was not liable to be warped by the strong 
views he took of his own side of a question, or that he 
was incapable of prejudice is not intended by these 
remarks, but that he could bear reproof, and when con- 
vinced of an error was ready to acknowledge his mistake 
and retrace his steps. 

Our departed brother possessed unusual conversational 
powers, and we venture to affirm that few men were ever 
in his company even for a brief period, without receiving 
the impression that he was an extraordinary person, and 
retaining a livery recollection of his appearance and 
address. No one has travelled with him or spent half an 
hour at a public table in his society, who was not con- 
vinced that he was enjoying the conversation of a man of 
splendid intellect, of varied knowledge, and acute obser- 
vation. With what prompt and withering rebuke he has 
reproved improprieties and purse proud insolence, and brawl- 
ing infidelty and profanity, in public places, there are 



27 

living witnesses, who will never forget the power of his 
eye, the sternness of his look, and the severity of his sar- 
casm. Let those of yoii who have long known Judge 
Wilkeson, think for a moment and consider, whether you 
remember any individual among your acquaintances who 
generally resembles him ? Can you recall any person who 
would remind you of his appearance, manner or address, 
or whose mental characteristics are sufficiently similar to 
sustain a comparison ? He was a man " sui generis " in 
almost every respect, and although he may have had equals 
in capacity, yet he possessed those peculiarities of mind and 
manner which attract universal attention and prevent 
all idea of resemblance. 

No man could be more affectionate and indulgent in his 
family than Judge Wilkeson. Whatever impression he 
may have made upon casual acquaintances by a certain 
apparent severity of manner, those who knew him best can 
testify that as a friend, as a husband, and as a father, his 
conduct was characterized by a kindness and affection rarely 
equalled. He was thrice married to women of superior 
talents and character. It is but a few months since the 
tears of a whole community bedewed the grave of that 
excellent and eminent female *Mrs. Mary Peters Wilke- 
son, his last wife, whose sudden death undoubtedly hastened 

* Note. — The following brief sketch of the life and character of 
Mrs. W. is extracted from the funeral discourse delivered upon the 
occasion of her death. It was the design of Judo;e Wilkeson to have 
had the whole sermon published. In view of this and in accordance 



his own. Former afflictions had come upon him in the 
vigor of Ms strength — this in the sere and yellow leaf, when 
the keepers of the house begin to tremble and they that 
look out of the windows are darkened. In his declining 
years she was to him an excellent gift from God, an orna- 



with the wishes of her friends the extract which follows lias been selec- 
ted, and appears in this connexion. 

" She was a daughter of Gen. Absalom Peters, of Hebron, 
Conn., who was of the old Puritan descent, The Peters family were 
renowned as the friends of evangelical truth and civil liberty in the 
fierce contentions of the 1 7th century in England, in which the founda- 
tion of English and American freedom were laid by the final over- 
throw of the Stuarts at the abdication of James II. The celebrated 
Hugh Peters, who was beheaded in 1660, in the reign of Charles II, 
was a brother of Gen. Peters' great grandfather. The Mother of 
Mrs. Wilkeson was a daughter of Nathanial Rogers Esq., a descen- 
dant of the fifth generation from the Martyr John Rogers of England, 
who was burned at Smithfield in 1550. This is not narrated simply 
to show the descent of our departed sister from an ancestry illustrious 
for ability and for their defence of civil and religious liberty, but that 
we may notice the faithfulness of God to the original covenant, on 
which he founded the Church, in the family of Abraham, when he 
said, " I will be a God to thee, and thy seed after thee in all their 
generations." — to show that she was of that holy generation, that 
royal priesthood, that peculiar people, of whom were the fathers and 
to whom and to their children after them, are the promises. A child 
of the covenant, Mrs. Wilkeson was trained in the nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord, and early manifested unusual talents which cultiva- 
ted with care and sanctified by the grace of God, placed her eventually 
at the head of one of the most distinguished Seminaries of learning 
for females in the United States. In the discharge of her onerous 
and highly responsible duties as Principal of this school, on the classic 
ground of New Haven, she spent many years of her life, previous to 
her marriage with Judge Wilkeson, with distinguished reputation to 
herself and usefulness to others. Her works do follow her, her wit- 



20 

merit to her sex, distinguished for her attainments, eminent 
for her piety, whose winning deportment, lovely example, 
and extensive charities won all hearts. The whole city 
was moved at her death as though each had lost a personal 
Mend and benefactor, and what must have been the grief 



nesses are scattered over a continent, her memorials are to be found 
in households in almost every section of our extended Union, in the 
characters of wives and mothers formed under her influence, upon 
whose hearts the tidings of her sudden death Avill fall heavily, and 
tears will be shed, and prayer offered and lamentation made by mul- 
titudes who received from her lips enduring lessons of wisdom and 
piety. If we. could follow the tidings of her decease to all the house- 
holds that will mourn her loss; if we could mark the effect upon the 
numerous pupils upon whom she left the grand impression of her 
great intellect and her ardent piety; if we could trace out all the 
streams of influence springing out from the Seminary at New Haven, 
and for a time like silver threads gliding onward until they become 
majestic rivers, bearing household treasures and immortal influences on 
their broad expanse ; if we could observe the influence of the counsels of 
wisdom and virtue instilled by mothers trained under her care, into 
the infant minds of those who are to be the statesmen and legislators 
of the next generation, we should see in the case of our departed 
sister the significance of the words of the text, " their works do follow 
them." 

The intellect of Mrs. Wilkeson was of a high order, she possessed 
what is rarely found in combination, genius and judgment. She had 
with the imagination of a poet, a philosophic cast, an antique grandeur 
of mind, grasping easily all subjects from the highest to the lowest and 
this was combined with a truly feminine delicacy of thought and 
feeling as uniform as it was fascinating. It has been well said that 
she possessed a wonderful ease and simplicity of manner combined 
with a native and unaffected dignity and a benevolence of character 
which shone out in her countenance as well as in her life, which 
attracted all hearts. Though possessed of exquisite sensibility there 
was a lofty calmness in her deportment in times of trial and trouble 



30 

of our aged brother when this rod of support to him was 
broken and withered, and what must have been his sorrow, 
when all were mourners, for the wife who was the light of 



indicative of the native grandeur of her mind and her firm confidence 
in God. 

Her Christian graces were manifest in all her life and conversation 
in the church, and in the world. If in a christian character of such 
admirable proportions, so justly balanced as that of our departed friend 
there can be properly any discrimination made, I should say she was 
distinguished especially for her benevolence, her humility, and her 
profound sense of dependance. Her charities were numerous, exten- 
sive and for the most part secret. Those who had wearied the patience 
of all others by their multiplied wants and querulousness of disposi- 
tion found her yet a willing listener to their complaints, an unwearied 
reliever of their necessities. The words of the Patriach were applica- 
ble to her : " When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; and when 
the eve saw me it gave witness unto me, because I delivered the poor 
that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. 
The blessing of him that was ready to perish, came upon me and I 
caused the widows heart to sing with joy. I put on rightousness 
and it clothed me, my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was 
eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame, and the cause I knew 
not I searched out." Yet she counted herself the least of all saints, 
exhibiting a humility of mind and a contrition of spirit which would 
seem in strange contrast with her blameless and holy life, and conver- 
sation to those who know not the nature of true religion and remain 
io-norant of the plague of their own hearts. Her constant feeling of 
dependence upon God, was another prominent trait in her christian 
character. From one of the last letters she ever wrote, addressed to 
a beloved sister, who mourns for her with a grief like that of Rachel, 
which refuses comfort, I am permitted to extract a Hymn of Praise 
composed by Mrs. W. during a recent journey to Chicago, and which, 
with what precedes it, affords a striking view of her devotional feelings. 
Speaking of a sleepless night, she says, " I meditated upon God in the 
night watches and on his providential care, and had this especially 
impressed upon my mind, that 



31 

his hearth, the partner of his cares, the support of his old 
age. It was a dark hour for our venerable friend when 
that noble woman died; its shadow never left him; the sun 
was never so blight for him afterward, nor the earth as 
green, nor the summer air so balmy ; and " all the daugh- 



" Nothing but truth before his throne 
With honor can appear, 
No vain pretense or false excuse 
Can find acceptance there." 

and so I resolved that I would study more to approve myself to God, 
who I am persuaded will never forsake those who trust in him. Oh! 
if we could commit all our ways to Him, it would be well with us. 
I finished my Hymn of Praise which I commenced at Chicago and 
write it out for you. 

" O God of our salvation, 
To thee we humbly raise 
Our song of adoration, 
Our sacrafice of praise. 

Whose hand our way hath guided 
Across the watery deep, 
Each day new joy provided, 
Each night refreshed with sleep. 

And now, thou bounteous Giver, 
Fresh mercies we implore, 
For man the frail receiver 
Must ever ask for more. 

Withhold thy righteous sentence 
Against our sin's deserts, 
And lead to true repentance 
Our wandering wayward hearts. 

And when the voyage is ended 
Of Life's uncertain sea, 
And our spirits have ascended 
To dwell for aye with thee—' 

The way the Lord hath brought us 
Through all our mortal days, 
And he whose blood hath bought u& 
Shall be our theme of praise." 



32 

ters of music were brought low " when that pleasant voice 
was silenced by death. He said it was well, for he recog- 
nized the hand of God ; but from the day when the light 
of his dwelling was darkened, when the staff of his age 
was broken, his time-touched locks became whiter, his 
strong frame weaker, his brow more furrowed, his eye 
more dim ; and standing by her tomb he could say with 
the afflicted patriarch, "the grave is mine house, the 
clods of the valley are now sweet unto me, all the days 
of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." 

Death came again to his doors, yet not as he supposed, 
to dissolve the "house of his tabernacle," before the 
trembling gates of which the grim monarch had so often 
and so loudly knocked, but to chill the pulses of a prom- 
ising grand child* who inherited his name — to pale a coun- 
tenance glowing with health and beauty — to pass by, in 
the mysterious providence of God, the aged and infirm 
man, and cover with the deadly shadow of his whig one 
before whom was the promise of a long life, the only son 
of his mother, withered like an opening blossom before an 

But the life and character of such an one as our departed friend is an 
exhaustless theme and we have spoken of her not with any vain 
desire to exalt her character, or eulogize her intellect or magnify her 
piety. We have spoken for the praise of Him whose grace was exhib- 
ited in her life for the honor of the gospel, of which she was a living- 
epistle, and because it is proper that her works, which follow her, 
should, now that she is beyond the influence of praise, be reported for 
the edification of the Church and the glory of God. 

* An only son of Mr. William Wilkeson, aged about thirteen years, 
who was instantly killed by the falling of a beam. 



33 

untimely frost. Our venerable friend once more gazed 
sorrowfully into the grave's mouth — surely, so he thought, 
to open for him next ; but it was not so appointed. He 
is summoned again to the death-bed of one of his 
family,* called in the meridian of life to the unseen world, 
and now he knows that he must soon lie with them that 
have gone before him to the dark and narrow house, yet 
not with them, for the Angel of Death met him in the 
way and his mortal remains repose in the mountains of 
the South West, far from the graves of his household — far 
from his home and his loved ones — far from the city to 
which his dust belongs, and the friends who would have 
given him a burial expressive of their esteem and worthy 
of his fame. He sleeps away from the resting place of 
his fathers, from the home of his childhood, from the 
city of his adoption and the theatre of his life, yet he said 
" what matters it where one dies " — and we know that 
this is nothing to him that sleeps in Jesus. 

" Asleep in Jesus, far from thee 
Thy kindred and their graves may be; 
In burning sands or frozen snows 
Believers find the same repose." 

Some account of Judge Wilkeson's religious character 
will be expected on this occasion, and from this place. He 
who performs the last sad office of friendship and christian 
affection, to day, in this funeral discourse upon the occasion 
of the decease of a member and office bearer in this church, 



* The late Dr. Stager 
C 



34 

stood with him seventeen years since in the same aisle, 
where a large company were assembled for the first time 
to receive the memorials of a Savior's love, and to acknowl- 
edge the Crucified before men. It was a solemn scene. 
In those aisles of the only Presbyterian church at that time 
erected in this city, were seen the results of a revival of 
religion, by far more extensive and powerful than any 
winch preceded or have hitherto succeeded it, were 
assembled a large company of all ages and classes, the old, 
the middle-aged and the young : there were the poor and 
unknown, with the rich, the gifted, and the honorable, to 
confess the same Savior, to acknowledge a common faith 
and a common hope : there ancient enemies met, long 
estranged, now reconciled, brethren henceforth, receiving 
together the sacramental symbols, the communion of the 
body and the blood of Christ, a spectacle of wonder and 
joy to angels and men. From that solemn day to tins, no 
one has been more conversant with the religious character 
of Judge Wilkeson, no one has better known his views 
and feelings upon religious subjects, no one, out of his 
family, has been with him in habits of more friendly and 
confidential intercourse than the Pastor of the church of 
winch he was so long a member and an elder; and I do not 
hesitate to say that whatever power of past habit might 
have been manifest in a man, who first became expeiimen- 
tally acquainted with Christianity at the age of fifty years, 
whatever from the bold and original cast of his mind, or 
from the peculiarities fixed by the passage of half a century, 



35 

may have been inferred, by prejudice or enmity, in the 
case of one, who had uncharitable opponents as well as 
warm friends, our departed brother gave clear and ample 
evidence of a gracious change wrought in his heart by the 
power of the Eternal Spirit. Says one who knew him 
well and who has kindly communicated several circum- 
stances in his history, "his meekness, his noble simplicity, 
and marked growth in spirituality from the time of his 
conversion, ought not to be lost sight of, and will not by 
one who knew him so well as yourself." 

There was apparent, in Judge Wilkeson, after his public 
profession of the faith of Christianity, not the mere restraints 
of a religious education which, however important, are no 
evidence of a vital union with the Redeemer — not alone 
that acquaintance with and respect for the gospel, which 
was one consequence of his Presbyterian training, but a 
spiritual apprehension and love of divine things, a total 
renunciation of his own merits as a ground of hope, a 
closing in with the terms of the gospel and a cleaving to 
His righteousness who is the " end of the Law for righte- 
ousness to every one that believeth." He had now not only 
a profound sense of the guilt and condemnation of human 
nature, but of his own unworthiness of the divine favor, 
and that as a sinner there was no hope for him but in 
that Redeemer who came to seek and to save that which 
is lost, and "who is able to save to the uttermost all that 
come unto God by Him." An advance was very manifest 
in Judge Wilkeson in the latter years of his life, in the 



36 

knowledge of God his Savior, in a clearer apprehension of 
the great truths of the Scriptures, especially of those 
doctrines of grace maintained by the Reformers, and 
defended at this day by the Presbyterian church. Though 
entangled for a time in the heresies and heats which pre- 
vailed here extensively after his profession of religion, he 
soon discovered their real nature and influence, and cor- 
dially returned with this church to the General Assembly, 
to which he was several times elected a commissioner, and 
of which he was once at least a member. He evidently 
advanced, towards the close of his life, in the discernment 
and love of spiritual things ; there was in him a marked 
growth in grace and an increase in his desire for the 
advancement of the kingdom of Christ, and in his willing- 
ness to make personal and pecuniary sacrifices for the 
spread of the gospel. 

To the cause of Missions he was a liberal contributor. 
No man in this church felt a deeper interest in the spread 
of the gospel in the dark places of the earth.* The con- 
dition and prospects of the unhappy tribes of Africa were, 
as we have seen, a matter of constant and increasing weight 
with our lamented brother. The cause of Christian educa- 
tion had a large place in his thoughts, and in one of the last 
conversations I had with him he mentioned his design to 
secure the sum of ten thousand dollars to endow an insti- 

* Since the delivery of this discourse it has been ascertained 
that Judge Wilkeson has left a liberal bequest for the founding of a 
Mission on the coast of Africa. 



tution of learning, to be under the care of the Judicato- 
ries of the Presbyterian Church, which, had he lived, he 
would have undoubtedly earned into effect. Almost all 
the great moral enterprises of the day had his countenance 
and aid, and numerous instances might be given of his 
readiness in every good work, and of his liberal contribu- 
tions for the various objects of benevolence. 

As an Elder in this church, he was excellent in counsel 
and prompt in his performance of the duties of his office, 
so far as his advancing age would permit, and notwith- 
standing his multiplied sorrows and increasing infirmities, 
though laboring under a form of disease which subjected 
him to the most excruciating pain and which would have 
utterly incapacitated most men from active exertion or 
warm interest in the external affairs of the church, he 
continued to manifest the deepest concern in the prosperity 
of this congregation by personal efforts and pecuniary con- 
tributions. A strong rod was broken and withered in our 
Zion when Samuel Wilkeson died. In the pathetic 
language of the Psalmist, we may say, " Return, Lord, 
how long, and let it repent thee, concerning thy servants. 
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast 
afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil." 

Of the death of our departed friend and brother, while 
on the way to visit a daughter residing in the state of 
Tennessee, no very full account has been received. A 
stranger,* who was called to his death-bed, gives the 

* Dr. McCall, of Tennessee. 



38 

following statement of the last scene in Lis life, through 
the columns of the New York Journal of Commerce. 

" On arriving at Kingston, Roane Co., Tennessee, at 9 
P. M., of the 7th inst., I was requested to see a dying 
stranger, Judge Samuel Wilkeson, of Buffalo, New York. 
As an enterprising citizen whose conduct had been marked 
with great benevolence, I had heard of him. He had a 
daughter with him on their way to visit his married 
daughter at Tellico Plains, forty miles from this place. 
The latter arrived to attend his funeral at 6 o'clock this 
evening, the 9th. Bronchial Erysipelas of two year's 
standing had caused gouty and rheumatic neuralgia in the 
lumbar and sciatic nerve, with other constitutional derange- 
ment. He was conscious of his approaching dissolution, 
and met it with the most perfect calmness and submission. 
On asking for water, he found he could not swallow it, and 
turning over said he would " drink of the springs of living 
waters." Intently examining his benumbed limbs with 
his hands and piercing blue eyes, he said submissively and 
assentingly, " Well ! Well ! " Having forgotten words to 
express himself, his brain was actively thinking for twelve 
or fourteen hours, when its powers suddenly sinking, he 
passed from life, like one quietly reposing in sleep, not 
moving one muscle, nor suffering any distress. Truly his 
seemed to be the death of the Christian, necessary for 
passing the screen that conceals future life from our view- 
He was an active promoter of the Colonization cause, years 



39 

ago, and had long been an exemplary member of the 
Presbyterian Church. His form and appearance strikingly 
resembled Gen. Jackson. He was sixty-seven years of 
age." 

"Judge Wilkeson " says the same writer in a subsequent 
statement of his disease and its termination, "could not 
long have survived even had he not subjected himself to 
change of place and the fatigue of travel." 

In the impression made upon a stranger in the final 
struggle, we perceive another proof of the native grandeur 
of the man whose loss we lament, more than this we find 
the evidence that God was with him in the last conflict in 
the dark valley. But one child was present to wipe the 
death damps from his furrowed brow, and she a widow and 
desolate, whose last prop seemed now failing — who, over- 
whelmed by the calamity, stood trembling there to receive, 
rather than communicate consolation, for the last effort he 
made, says the attending physician, appeared to be an 
attempt to comfort his daughter. Strangers, compassionate 
and attentive indeed, but strangers still, stood by that bed 
of death in the hour of his mortal agony, but ONE was 
with our dying friend 'who sticketh closer than a brother ;' 
ONE, who walked with the Hebrew children in the fires 
of the Babylonish furnace, which had been seven times 
heated; ONE, whose form was like the Son of God. 
Angels, too, were there, and as the film of death obscured 
his vision of earthly things, he saw them bending over him 
to lift the curtain of eternity and point him to the living 



40 

waters which flow fast by the throne of God. " I will 
drink," said he, " of the springs of living waters," when 
dissolving nature refused the pure element which is the 
type of the rivers of life in the heavenly city. 

" Is it well with thee," was the enquiring look of those 
who gazed upon the countenance of the aged sufferer. " It 
is well," was his reply as he yielded his spirit to the Lord 
of life. We shall see hhn no more, until the heavens fail, 
until the elements melt with fervent heat, and the dead 
hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, 
and amid the groans of a dissolving universe, assemble 
before the great white throne and Him who sits thereon, 
before whom Heaven and Earth shall flee away. But though 
dead he yet speaketh ; a voice from that death bed, from 
that lone grave in the mountains comes to you who are of 
his blood, entreating all who are his children by descent, 
and who inherit his name, to be also the heirs of his faith 
and hope, to say from your hearts, " my father, my father, 
thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." I 
am a witness to you this day of the deep and earnest 
solicitude of your venerable father for your salvation, often 
expressed to me as his pastor and friend. May you drink 
with him at the last of these springs of living waters, 
which he saw by faith before his spirit entered the unseen 
world* 

* In his last letter addressed to his sons, Judge Wilkeson says, 
among other things, " I may never see yon again, whether I do or not, 
be kind to each other, be liberal, and generous — forgiving all injuries 
whether real or imaginary." 



41 

"This is the end of earth," said a great statesman 
struck down by death in the hall of the national legisla- 
ture. " All flesh is grass," and man's " life is a vapor 
which appeareth for a moment and then vanisheth away," 
is the testimony of the Holy Ghost. How impressive is 
the lesson of the vanity of earthly honors and the brevity 
of human life when the great and gifted die, when we are 
compelled to take up the lamentation " How are the mighty 
fallen and the weapons of war perished," when the strong 
man has bowed himself, and the bow of the valiant is 
broken. Happy are they, who like our departed friend, 
cast down their honors at the foot of the cross, who lay up 
durable riches and righteousness, who seek for glory, honor 
and immortality, even eternal life. 

The same startling contrasts which move us when the 
great and noble go down to the land of silence and dark- 
ness, when the strong, the beautiful and the valiant bend 
beneath the touch of death, and seem to say in the pathetic 
language of Job, " my days are past, my purposes are bro- 
ken off, the grave is mine house, I have made my bed in 
darkness, I have said to corruption thou art my father, to 
the worm thou art my mother and my sister," have 
been witnessed and felt by all former generations, the 
broken monuments of whose magnificence and power are 
scattered over the earth, like beacons on the shores of time, 
warning; the Mariner on the Ocean of life of the inevitable 
shipwreck and ruin which sooner or later overtake all 
temporal things. 



42 

The mighty Shadows of the Past as they flit along 
the dim perspective of History, lift the finger of warning 
and point us to the graves of Empires, the shattered 
columns of the vast cities of antiquity, and to the few 
names of valiant men that have escaped the erasure of 
Time ; and voices from these august Spectres, reverbe- 
rate along the line of centuries like the sound of many 
waters, exclaiming ' this is the end of earth,' behold all is 
vanity, while voices from heaven respond • verily man at his 
best estate is altogether vanity, his life is a vapor, he is 
crushed before the moth, his works perish, he cometh forth 
as a flower and is cut down, he fleeth also as a shadow 
and continueth not;' and mournful responses from our 
Mien world pierce the sides, " if a man die shall he live 
again? and where is then our hope and where is our 
Deliverer ?" then the Lord ■ thunders from Heaven and 
the most High utters his voice,' before an astonished and 
attentive universe. " Behold, HE cometh from Edom, with 
dyed garments from Bozrah, his apparel is red, HE treads 
the wine-press of my wrath alone, and of the people there 
is none with Him, — the Angel of the Covenant, the Prince 
of Peace, the Everlasting Father, the Redeemer mighty 
to save, and they that believe in Him shall live and reign 
forever as kings and priests unto God. To Him be glory 
and dominion, Amen. 



43 



APPENDIX. 



Judge Wilkeson was often a member of the Synod of Buffalo, 
aiding their deliberations by his counsels. The following notice of 
his death will indicate the esteem in which he was held by this body : 

Extract from the Records of the Synod of Buffalo, held at Roch- 
ester, Aug. 17, 1848 — 

Whereas it has pleased God to remove from this world the Hon- 
Samuel Wilkeson, late an Elder in one of our Churches, and from 
time to time a member of this Judicatory ; 

Therefore resolved by this Synod, that, in the death of Judge Wil- 
keson we are called to mourn the loss of an individual distinguished 
by his high position, by his gifts of intellect, by his christian benevo- 
lence, and by his ardent attachment to the interests and his earnest 
efforts for the advancement of the Presbyterian Church. 

Resolved, that we deeply sympathize with his bereaved family in 
their afflictions, and our prayer to God, is, that the death of our depar- 
ted Brother may be sanctified to them, that his religious counsels may 
be embalmed in their memories, and that the Spirit of all Grace may 
impart to them all needful consolation and enable them to follow in 
his footsteps. 

Resolved, that the Stated Clerk of the Synod address to the family 
of the late Judge Wilkeson a copy of this minute. 

A. T. RANKIN, Moderator. 

A true copy from the record. 

Attest John C. Lord, Stated Clerk, 



44 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION AND COLONIZATION. 



Some years since Judge Wilkeson published under his own name 
in the columns of the Commercial Advertiser of this city, several 
articles on the subject of Slavery and the elevation of the colored 
race. They were written with great ability and indicated his intimate 
acquaintance with this complicated and difficult question. The follow- 
ing extract has been selected for the reason that it presents his views 
on the subject of Colonization. Speaking of the free Blacks, he says: 

" Wherever the white laborer came in contact with the black, he 
prevailed. Thus depressed, it is not surprising that so many should 
have become tenants of our prisons. 

"In Massachusetts (in 1826,) where only one seventy-fourth part 
of the population were free people of color, one-sixth part of the 
convicts were of their number. In Connecticut, one-thirty-fourth part 
of the population were colored and one-third of the convicts- In 
Vermont, where there are only nine hundred and eighteen colored 
persons altogether, twenty-four of that number were in the Peniten- 
tiary. In New York, one-thirty-fourth part of the population were 
colored, and about one-fourth of the convicts. In New Jersey, one- 
thirteenth of the population and one-third of the convicts. In Penn- 
sylvania, one-thirty-fourth part of the population, and one-third of the 
convicts were colored persons." 

Although the relation of master and slave was dissolved, and the 
slaves of the eastern and middle states had become free, yet the 
hopes of their elevation, which had been honestly and confidently 
anticipated by the benevolent friends of emancipation, were disap- 
pointed. They saw the colored man excluded, by the stern law of 
public opinion, from social equality with the whites. However worthy 
and respectable the family of the negro, the parlor and the drawing- 
room were shut against them, and the schools were closed against their 
children. If a young colored man was educated, no merchant would 
give him employment at his counter, or in his counting-room. He 
could not get employed as a mechanic, for no journeyman would work 



45 

with him at the same bench, or in the same shop, or permit him to 
board at the same table. Had the colored man displayed the greatest 
perseverance and fortitude, the obstacles thrown in his way would have 
been insurmountable, but he possessed neither the one nor the other, 
and the hope of his elevation in this country could not be realised until 
a total change should take place in the public mind. In Massachu- 
setts nearly half a century had passed since slavery was abolished, and 
no advance had been made in elevating the negro ; and if the most 
intelligent, moral and religious community in the world would not 
take the poor, oppressed, and much abused African by the hand, and 
raise him to an equality with themselves, his case was hopeless ; the 
fate of the red man awaited him. The free man of color was among 
us, but not of us. 

Mr. Jefferson, and other distinguished southern men, exerted 
themselves successfully in awakening the attention of slave holders of 
the south to the evils of domestic slavery. A large number of slaves 
were emancipated, particularly in North Carolina and Virginia, but 
instead of improving their liberty, and making themselves useful as 
free laborers, they generally became worthless and vicious. Many 
masters who were prepared to emancipate their slaves were restrained 
from doing so, under the belief that it would be only consigning them 
to wretchedness. 

The friends of the colored man, disappointed, but not discouraged, 
resolved to make another effort for his elevation, by seeking a country 
to which he could remove and call it his home, where he would have 
no white man to lord it over him, where all the stimulants and induce- 
ments to noble and manly effort would be felt, where he would be the 
maker and executor of his own laws, and could hope to see his race 
rise by their own energies to the enjoyment of religious and civil 
liberty. This was a plan worthy of the men who conceived it, men 
who could not be suspected of selfishness, who loved to do good to 
their fellow men, because they were immortal follow beings. Deeply 
sympathising with the children of Africa in our own country, and for 
whom their seemed no hope, to whom emancipation was scarcely a 
blessing, they resolved upon Colonization. 

The formation of the American Colonization Society, its object — the 
commencement of a colony in Liberia on the western coast of Africa, 
and its progress up to this time, are known to the American public. 
Whatever may be the fate of that colony, the scheme of colonization 



46 

itself was evidently wise and benevolent, and adapted to the end in 
view. The object of this society was to remove free colored men with 
their own consent, from a country where insurmountable difficulties 
appeared to be in the way of their elevation, to a country where all 
their energies could be called into action and have full scope. Some 
of the early friends of the society, no doubt had other views than those 
expressed, in giving their support: this does not however detract from 
its merit, nor from the wisdom and benevolence of its founders. If 
the chances of success had been ever so doubtful, the experiment was 
bold, and commended itself to the benevolent world. The good to be 
attained, if successful, would embrace the whole African race. But 
the scheme itself was practicable, and the partial success which at first 
attended its prosecution, is attributable to causes which could not have 
been foreseen, and to errors which might have been avoided." 



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